(Part 1 of 2)

In 1880, Canadian Prospector Joe Juneau brought about the gold rush era by discovering gold in AK. America's coldest state is also home to the largest oil field on the continent of North America and its primary source of revenue is the natural gas and oil industry. There is another source of wealth that the majority of residents of America's Last Frontier have not yet discovered- Alaska unclaimed money and assets. AK has the lowest population density in the entire country – meaning life is not really very busy or hectic compared to the country's more packed cities like New York. It's strange, then, that according to an article by Fairbanks' The News-Miner, tens of thousands of Alaskans have unclaimed property waiting for them in Juneau, the state capital.


People and businesses often lose track of their properties while changing names, addresses, or closing shop and just plain forgetting. Unclaimed money comes from lost assets like forgotten stocks and stock dividends, insurance policies, income tax refunds, long-dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, and other financial assets. The AK Unclaimed Property Act requires the establishments holding these to turn them over to the state if their rightful owners can't be found after a specified period of inactivity. This 'dormancy period' in AK is one year for utilities, five for stock shares and checking and savings accounts, seven years for non-bank money orders and fifteen years for traveler's checks. The only tangible assets covered under the act are safe deposit box contents.


There are over 300 thousand accounts of Alaskan unclaimed monies on the state list and 12,000 more items are added to this list annually. Every Alaska resident should do a forgotten funds search because it's quite surprising who turns up on the list of owners of abandoned property. the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, China Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, the Russian Airline company Aeroflot, even KTVF-TV and KIAK radio have claimable cash waiting for them in AK. Even government establishments are owed lost cash! Local governments and school districts in Barrow, Anchorage, Kenai and Juneau are among the names listed in over a dozen unclaimed property accounts. The names of former State Governor Tony Knowles, his wife Susa, former Gov. Steve Cowper, former Gov. Bill Sheffield, former Lt. Gov. Lowell Thomas Jr., are also listed as being owed money. These people are public officials, easy to find and they have yet to discover their unclaimed property being held by the state.

(to be continued)

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